The dream of making it big in Canada is turning into a battle for survival for many immigrants due to the high cost of living and rental shortages, as rising emigration numbers hints to newcomers being forced to turn their back on a country that they chose to make their adopted home.

Trudeau has made immigration his main weapon to blunt Canada’s big challenge of an aging and slowing population, and it has also helped fuel economic growth. That drove Canada’s population up at its fastest clip in more than six decades this year, Statistics Canada said.

But now a reversal of that trend is gradually taking hold. In the first six months of 2023 some 42,000 individuals departed Canada, adding to 93,818 people who left in 2022 and 85,927 exits in 2021, official data show.

The rate of immigrants leaving Canada hit a two-decade high in 2019, according to a recent report from the Institute for Canadian Citizenship (ICC), an immigration advocacy group. While the numbers went down during pandemic lockdowns, Statistics Canada data shows it is once again rising.

  • guyrocket@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Iceland, Interesting. I really want to visit but I never considered living there.

    You like colder weather? Seems like there are other places that might be a little warmer?

    • rab@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      The weather in Iceland is absolutely terrible. That is a definite downside. A lot of people who move to Iceland leave after their first winter. But because of that, talented folks in Iceland who do my line of work usually gtfo to mainland Europe, which is creating job openings that accept English speakers.

      Iceland also has functional healthcare and no crime. You don’t even have to lock your car. I am sick of not even trusting my neighbours here in Canada.

      Iceland has a housing crisis too but I think we’d be making so much money it would be a non issue.

      Weed is also super illegal and expensive in Iceland :(